'Twas the Night Before Christmas - Free ebook

Right now, Amazon has 'Twas the Night Before Christmas in ebook format for free!  Download this for your Kindle, iPad, iPhone or Android phone. 

Amazon does change their prices frequently, so just make sure it still says $0.00 before you purchase.

Thanks, My Frugal Adventures!

GIVE-A-WAY - Celebrating & Savoring: a simple Christmas ebook

Can you tell that Crystal from Money Saving Mom is one of my favorite bloggers?  Crystal is an expert a frugal and simple living - her stories are absolutely inspiring.

Crystal has written a new ebook called Celebraing & Savoring:  a simple Christmas.  It's being released today and she's selling it for only $0.99 through Thursday!  I purchased my copy this morning - I can't wait to read it!

From Crystal:

In this book you'll learn to:

- Organize your  Christmas list

- Make and stick with a Christmas budget

- Freezer cook for the holidays

- Make memorable family activities

- Simple and inexpensive homemade gifts

- Get your home in order

- Savor the meaning of the season

... and much more

Even more exciting is that Crystal has given me a copy of her ebook to give away to one of my readers!

To enter the give-a-way, please email me at holidaysforless@yahoo.com and let me know which of the following actions below you've taken.  You will be entered in the give-a-way 1 time for each action you take (so up to 3 times):

1. Follow Holidays for Less (the blue button on the right hand side that says "Join this Site").

2. Like Holidays for Less on Facebook (if you already like Holidays for Less, that counts too!) - click the "F" at the top right of the blog to connect to our Facebook page.

3. Follow Holidays for Less on Twitter (if you already follow Holidays for Less, that counts too!). Just click the birdie in the circle at the top right of the blog (next to the F and P in circles) to follow on Twitter.

The give-a-way will close at 5pm Wednesday and the winner will be chosen at random and announced Wednesday night! 

Who Do You Send Holiday Cards To?

Holiday cards are expensive for three reasons:

1. The cards themselves are expensive
2. The postage is expensive
3. The sheer number of cards you send out makes this ritual really expensive!

Here's how you can cut down on those costs:

1. Take advantage of the deals I post here on the blog (maybe check out this Cardstore post)
2. Take advantage of the Cardstore deal and have them send your cards out for you - they pay your postage!
3. Now what to do about how many cards to send out... personally, I send to certain family and then to friends that sent to us last year.  Either keep your cards from last year and use that as your list as you're doing this year's cards.  Or as you're packing up your holiday decorations at the end of the year, make a quick list of everyone you received a card from this year.  This will be your holiday card list for the following year.  My mom taught me this trick years ago and it really does help to cut down on the number of cards you need to send.

Thank you, Staci, for reminding me of this great tip!

Money Saving Mom: 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home - Day 6

 

Week 2 has begun of Money Saving Mom's challenge:  4 weeks to a more organized home!  Today's assignment was to quickly clean out your car and vacuum it if you had time.

 

My car is cleaned out, but definitely no time to vacuum it out - it gets dark so early!  I will say, I really only had to remove 1 water bottle because my husband was kind enough to take the other stuff out of my car this weekend.

 

My car tends to get messy fast, but I've been doing a great job lately of keeping it picked up.  What did my husband have to bring in this weekend?  A pink feather boa and a pair of Dorothy (Wizard of Oz) red sparkle shoes - ah, life with a 4-year-old girl! 

 

Front seat - those are my sneakers and socks, left in my car in the hopes that I'll take a walk at work.  Didn't happen today - I was swamped!

 

Back seat - see, it really could use some vacuuming... maybe this weekend :)

 

Have you followed Crystal at Money Saving Mom yet?  It's not too late to start!

That's So Pinteresting...

Photo Credit

 

You've probably heard of Pinterest already.  If you haven't yet joined, you really need to!  If you need an invitation to join (not sure if they're still doing that), let me know and I'll send you an invite.  Pinterest is wonderful for so many reasons, but it really can help you save money on any entertaining that you do!

 

I could probably devote a whole blog (not just blog post) about how wonderful Pinterest is and how it can help you save money, so I'll try and keep this as concise as possible!

 

The ideas that are posted to Pinterest are truly inspiring.  The amount of creativity (both manifested in to a physical representation as well as the mental creativity) that is out there is absolutely amazing!  Here is my top five ways to use these inspirational "pins" to your favor when entertaining/planning for your holiday:

 

1.  Holiday decorations:  The picture above is just one example of a thrifty, yet beautiful idea you can find on Pinterest.  I've actually done this in years past (I wish I had a picture of it!) - just gather some sticks/twigs from your back yard, spray paint them and arrange them in a vase.  If you already had spray paint on hand, that's a decoration for $0!  Even if you had to purchase the spray paint, it's a cheap decoration!  There are tons of other decoration inspiration you can find on Pinterest as well.

 

2.  Homemade gift ideas:  I've pinned quite a few lists of different homemade gift ideas.  Some of these ideas are really genius!  I'm always afraid that a home made gift will come out cheesy looking - but some of these ideas (like cookie mix in a jar, etc) are great small ideas that will definitely look great!

 

3.  Stocking stuffer ideas:  Again, I've pinned quite a few lists of different stocking stuffer ideas for all different people!  The list that I value the most is stocking stuffers for men.  Seriously, they are so hard to find good stocking stuffers for!

 

4.  Inexpensive gift ideas:  A list of gifts under $5?  Yes, please!  I don't love all of the $5 gift ideas, but I've seen some really creative and cute ones!  Ideas that I wouldn't mind receiving as a gift!

 

5.  Party foods and drinks:  I've seen some of the coolest food and drink ideas on Pinterest.  Crudites in the shape of a Christmas tree - adorable! 

 

Seriously, I could go on and on.  If you haven't used Pinterest before, definitely check it out.  If you use it religously (me!), try to find ideas that will save you on holiday gifts or entertaining and don't just pin the idea - actually try it!

 

If you'd like to follow me on Pinterest, you can click the little "P" in the upper right hand corner of the blog, or click here.

 

Five FREE 4x8 Photo Cards from Rite Aid!

From now until 11/17, Rite Aid is offering 5 FREE photo cards with the code 5FREECARDS at check out! 

I'll be honest, I think Rite Aid is terrible to deal with - poor customer service & too many hoops to jump through for their deals.  However... when they are offering up free photos or free photo cards, I will take advantage of the offer!

I've ordered my cards already, so here are my tips to make your experience a little easier:

1. Head to the rite aid photo center online and either log in or register
2. Before you even start to look at cards, I would recommend uploading the pictures that you want to use.  I didn't do this and it was a pain for me to upload my photos after I picked out my card.
3. Then go to Cards at the top and pick 4x8 cards.  You don't just have to do a holiday card, you can do any kind of 4x8 card that you'd like.
4. After you make your card and get to the check out process, enter the cod 5FREECARDS in the promo code box.  For me, it didn't change the price, it looked like I was still being charged $3.75.  I put the code in probably 50 times and nothing changed.  On a whim, I continued with the check out process and once I was in the next screen, it showed my total as $0.
5. You will not need to put in any credit card information.
6. Choose ship to store and pick your store.

I'll take 5 free photo cards any day!  I'll be using these and the 10 free from cardstore the other day (no longer available) to pass out at work.

Thanks, Hip 2 Save!

Entertaining for Less: Shop at Big Box Stores (BJ's, Costco, etc) for Your Baking Supplies

 

Have you ever bought your baking supplies at BJ's, Costco or Sams Club?  Honestly, I had never thought about it until a few months ago, and boy was I happy with what I found!  Most baking supplies were cheaper at BJ's than they were at the grocery store! 

 

Here's a list of the cost of baking supplies at my BJ's (prices may vary by region, but these should be pretty close to what you'll find):

 

1. Peanut butter:  $10.49 for (2) 40oz jars = $2.10 per 16oz jar (this is a fabulous price!)
2. Pam spray:  $6.99 for (2) 12oz cans = $3.50/12oz can
3. Gold Medal Flour:  $4.99 for 10lbs = $0.50/lb
4. Yeast:  $4.49 for 2lbs = $2.25/lb or $0.14/oz
5. Domino Sugar:  $5.49 for 10lbs = $0.55/lb
6. Confectioners Sugar:  $3.19 for 4lbs = $0.80/lb
7. Brown Sugar:  $3.19 for 4lbs = $0.80/lb

 

These are all very good prices for these baking supplies.  If nothing else, use these prices as a comparison when you're shopping.  There is absolutely a chance that during this big baking season you'll find a better price at your local grocery store.  At least by using this list as a comparison, you'll know that you're getting a good deal! 

 

A note on the peanut butter:  peanut butter keeps going up in price and now my "great" price at the grocery store is $2.50 or under for a 16oz jar.  So to be able to buy it for the equivalent of $2.10 per 16oz jar is wonderful!  Outside of a fantastic sale elsewhere, I will never buy peanut butter anywhere else!